(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a label where a product code is recorded, a product with the label attached, a product information acquisition apparatus and a product code editing apparatus based on the label.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, high attention is paid to an IC tag, a two-dimensional code and the like as a new elemental technology that identifies and manages a product. Compared with a conventional bar code, the IC tag and the two-dimensional code have bigger capacity. Therefore, it is possible to unify management for both product and supplemental information and realize highly accurate information management.
As one of prior arts that use the IC tag for product information management, there is an art called “A noncontact tag, a production distribution management method and a production distribution management system” (See a Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 11-144012). It relates to a management method for a product in a production distribution process, and the IC tag is used as a media that memorizes information obtained in each stage of the production distribution process. Also, as one of other prior arts that use the IC tag for the information management, there is an art called “A user authentication method and a user authentication system that use the IC tag” (See a Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2002-157040). It relates to a user authentication method executed when a computer terminal is used, and the IC tag is used as a media that memorizes data that identifies a user who uses the terminal.
However, since the conventional information management that uses the conventional IC tag or the two-dimensional code depends on a property of the IC tag or of the two-dimensional code, which has relatively big data capacity, and the IC tag or the two-dimensional code does not memorize information efficiently under this management. Therefore, only product information limited for a specific purpose is stored, or only a limited range of product information is stored therein. It is difficult to view an extremely large amount of information such as a detailed product description containing pictures or images.
Additionally, because the conventional information management using the conventional IC tag or the two-dimensional code merely memorizes all necessary information as it is, and does not count any efforts of the user who views the information memorized in the IC tag or the two-dimensional code. Furthermore, it does not allow the user to view the latest product information that is updated from time to time.